Kim Bellware from the Huffington Post has been following Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, and recently she interviewed CCATDP’s Heather Beaudoin and me to discuss why more conservatives are opposing the death penalty. Bellware wrote,

“We were really nervous our first time going about the reception we would receive,” Hyden’s co-coordinator, Heather Beaudoin, said. “Now, we’re seen as a welcome part of the establishment, which is really interesting. No one questions whether or not we belong and we’ve shown that there are lot of conservatives who are concerned about the death penalty.”

She went on to say,

A Pew Research survey published this month indicates support for capital punishment among Republicans has fallen 10 percent in the past two decades. While the decline appears gradual, Gallup Poll numbers show that Republican support for the death penalty dropped 5 percent from 2013 to 2014, from 81 percent to 76 percent.

Nowhere is the shifting attitude more apparent than in Nebraska, where the nonpartisan, single-house legislature recently voted 30-13 in support of a bill that would repeal the death penalty.

She closed by quoting both Heather and myself,

Hyden said he’s optimistic that once conservatives truly stop and consider the reality of the death penalty — “it’s a big government program that risks lives and it’s extremely costly and fails at all its goals” — a growing number will support ending it in America.

“It’s becoming more difficult to ignore because it’s out there and folks are really having conversations on it,” Beaudoin said. “The more you know about this issue, the more you’re going to be concerned about the death penalty and the way it’s being carried out. People are waking up and saying, ‘this really isn’t worth it anymore.’”